Steven Spielberg not worried about box office success

Steven Spielberg isn't worried about 'The Post' not being a box office hit as he thinks the movie will still be relevant in 20 years

Steven Spielberg doesn't care if 'The Post' is a box office flop.

The 71-year-old director insists he has already done his job in making the movie - which follows the Washington Post defying threats from then-President Richard Nixon to publish the Pentagon Papers stories in 1971 - and regardless of how it performs, he thinks the film will stand the test of time.

Asked how he'd feel if the movie flops, he said: "It's not about the audience, it's about the process of getting the story told on film. It's not about how it will be received. Once I finish the film, I've done what I had to do. If it flopped at the box office, I would feel that it would still be relevant 20 years from now."

And Spielberg hopes the movie - which stars Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep - will inspire audiences to watch 'All the President's Men', Alan J. Pakula's 1976 movie about the Watergate scandal which was exposed by the Washington Post and led to Nixon's downfall.

He said: "It's one of my favourite political pictures. If The Post would inspire people to watch it, it would make me happy."

The acclaimed director describes 'The Post' as his first political thriller and he likes trying new genres because he gets his best ideas when he's feeling uncertain.

He told the Sunday Times' Culture magazine:I " get better ideas when I am standing on my heels, not on the flat of my soles. It's because I don't want to fall, and I need to regain my balance... When I get into a genre I've never done before, it's scary but healthy."